1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vaporizer which vaporizes a liquid by heating and to a power generation apparatus and an electronic equipment in which the vaporizer is provided.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in the power generation apparatuses, there is a fuel cell apparatus which comprises a power generation cell which generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction between a fuel such as methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether and the like and oxygen. In the fuel cell apparatus, a vaporizer which vaporizes the liquid fuel and water by heating is provided as disclosed in JP2001-338665, for example. As for a vaporizer, for example, there is known a vaporizer comprising a porous material in which a liquid to be vaporized flows therein and a heater to heat the porous material.
However, in such a vaporizer, when the bubbles get into the piping at the upper stream side of the vaporizer, the bubbles remain in the upper stream side of the porous material because bubbles cannot infiltrate into the porous material easily comparing to the liquid fuel and water. Therefore, the liquid fuel and water cannot be supplied stably to the vaporizer, and thus, the fuel cannot be supplied stably to the power generation cell either.